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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29228586">Hiring Voice Actors? In This Economy?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chitra_Rive/pseuds/Chitra_Rive'>Chitra_Rive</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>TMA Is The Mechanisms' Podcast [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast), Stellar Firma (Podcast), The Mechanisms (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crack Treated Seriously, Crossover, Gen, Humor, Parody, TMA Is The Mechanisms' Podcast, forbidden ben&amp;lyd dynamic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:40:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,437</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29228586</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chitra_Rive/pseuds/Chitra_Rive</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasha Rackett and David-7 wake up in a dark room. This is a situation they are all too familiar with; but as it turns out, there's quite a bit more going on than that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>David 7 &amp; Sasha Racket</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>TMA Is The Mechanisms' Podcast [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897426</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hiring Voice Actors? In This Economy?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i wrote one (1) serious work for this series and immediately had to write something stupid to cleanse my palette.</p><p>credit for this premise goes to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/comments/338800255">this comment thread</a> on the first work in the series! y'all're funnier than i could ever dream of being.</p><p>this happens sometime in late s1 of stellar firma and just after rqg 125! (yes, i know sasha has a healed finger by then. shh. it was a funny scene and i didn't want to edit it.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Sasha Rackett woke up. Her friends weren’t anywhere near her. She didn’t like that. Hadn’t they all been holding hands? What if they’d done something stupid? What did she remember- </span>
  <em>
    <span>letting go, falling out of reality, the vacuum of space, frost creeping over her and gluing her gloves to her flesh. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She’d broken the circle, then. Eldarion had said she’d pro’lly die if she did that, but who trusted her. Well. Sasha’d, but only so they could rescue everyone’s people. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Faking dead- or knocked out at least, but really if you beat someone till they passed out and just left ‘em on their own they’d be dead anyhow- she glanced around her. Darkness surrounded her. That should’ve comforted her, but looking around further, there was the complete darkness with a slim ray of light in the shape of a doorframe that characterized a cell. The shadows seemed to sharpen, and she shivered under their chill. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Breathing, close to her. She couldn’t see them from her position lying on the ground, but reasoned that if they were going to kill her they might have bothered to check if she had a heartbeat and stabbed her extra so she didn’t anymore </span>
  <em>
    <span>before </span>
  </em>
  <span>she woke up, or just left her in space, assuming that’s where she’d been. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Springing up suddenly, she brought her daggers to hand in case they tried anything. (Not her magic ones, she’d decided not to trust that nonsense anymore. If your daggers fired back on you, what </span>
  <em>
    <span>could </span>
  </em>
  <span>you trust? No, it was cold, decidedly non-magical adamantine for her from now on.) </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the dark, it was hard to make out anything but a silhouette, but the breathing had definitely increased in speed. It sounded like they were panicking. As she moved cautiously towards them, they scurried back, pressing their back against the wall and staring at her. A faint glow came from their eyes, a bit like one of those types who could see in the dark, illuminating a fraction of a terrified face. Maybe they could see in the dark and tell her what was in this room. Now that’d be a useful skill. They were thin and scrawny, and didn’t look like they’d be any threat even if they were hostile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She raised her hands in an attempt to look nonthreatening. This noble effort was hindered by the fact she was still holding her daggers, which she wasn’t gonna let go of any time soon given she was in a cell. “Hey, mate, it’s okay, just tell me what’s going on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something hit her hard in the face. When she regained her senses she was back on the ground, ears ringing and daggers gone. She rubbed at her cheek, which felt like someone had thrown a steel block at it. “Fuck, owww…” She glared at the other person. “What’d you do to me?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry! Uh, I promise it won’t happen again- I mean, I didn’t do anything, what are you talking about?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>just </span>
  </em>
  <span>punched me.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nope.” He fidgeted, wringing his hands. “I- you must be mistaken. Please don’t hurt me.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You just did!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re fine now!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No I’m not,” Sasha complained. “It still stings. What were you tryin’ to do, kill me or something? Just tell me what’s going on!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was the clatter of him sitting down. Sasha tried to join him on the ground and tripped over someone’s coat. She recovered easily and squatted on the balls of her feet across from him, taking the coat and throwing it on around her shoulders. She still felt cold. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right, then,” he said, businesslike. “I got here a little while ago after being </span>
  <em>
    <span>pulled </span>
  </em>
  <span>into </span>
  <em>
    <span>space </span>
  </em>
  <span>because some </span>
  <em>
    <span>idiot </span>
  </em>
  <span>blew up the hull! Of the space station where everyone will die if it’s destroyed! Do you see this- this </span>
  <em>
    <span>problem </span>
  </em>
  <span>I have-” He collected himself. “Right. I woke up here, same as you, and this is </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>the normal dark room. Trust me, I know the normal ones </span>
  <em>
    <span>very well. </span>
  </em>
  <span>I don’t know anything more than you do.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sasha extended a hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at it in some trepidation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just shake my hand, I don’t have a palmed dagger or nothing.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a second of consideration, he took it. His hand was slippery and cold to the touch. “I’m David-7.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sasha… uhh… Rocket.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He raised an eyebrow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sasha sighed. “Sorry, ‘s really Rackett.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How about something else as a pseudonym?” David-7 suggested diplomatically. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure. I’m takin’ suggestions.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked surprised at that. “Oh! I didn’t think you’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>agree. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Maybe. Uh.” He seemed to be thinking as hard as he could. “Rockeats.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a proper good idea, that is. I’ll use it.” She didn’t know why she was hiding that anyway. It wasn’t relevant. She was in </span>
  <em>
    <span>space. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Unless they’d managed to find her there-- no. She was over that. She knew she was stronger and better than anyone who would try to hold her, and that Barrett was still in a prison cell and for all she cared he could rot there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ey, David.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“David-7. I’ve been thinking, and I </span>
  <em>
    <span>think</span>
  </em>
  <span> ‘Seven’ is my first name, actually.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me about space. You’re from space, right?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I couldn’t tell you much, I’ve never really- been outside. Or done much of anything. Or been anywhere. Aren’t you from space too? Isn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything </span>
  </em>
  <span>in space, when you think about it?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, ‘cause I wasn’t. I’m from Earth.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Earth? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Are you sure?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pretty sure. I mean, I’ve been there all my life, I think I’d know. That’s 23 years!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s longer than I’ve been in space. Which is all my life, but you’re older than me. So like… a month.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure you have your maths right there?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” he sighed, “it’s probably less.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sasha decided to not unpack that. She got up and started running her hands across the wall, looking for a lightswitch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s no use,” David-7 started, just as she found it and flipped it on. The room illuminated in bright light, leaving her blinking for a second. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were clothes and sewing supplies scattered all around, including a machine up on a table. She picked up a plate sitting on a different wooden table to the side and inspected it. Licking the crumbs on it, they were long gone stale. Running her hand over the table, it was riddled with bullet holes. In the light, it was less scary-familiar and more of a puzzle to be solved. Sasha could work with this. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>David-7 visible looked like no humanoid species she’d seen, but he definitely was one, so probably just a rare sort she’d missed in her studies. More notably, he was wearing a thin jumpsuit and a metal collar around his neck. Sasha recognized the concept, if not the technology, and what that meant made her blood run cold. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you alright? With the collar, I mean? I can cut it off you!” She retrieved a dagger from inside her jacket and advanced. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>David-7 squeaked and ducked down. “Nope! No thank you! I’m alright, really!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’ll be fine! Look, I did it on myself- I had a ring- and it worked!” She waved her stump of a severed finger in his face. For some reason, that didn’t seem to reassure him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please don’t! You might not need your finger, but I need my head and also </span>
  <em>
    <span>not to die.” </span>
  </em>
  <span>He paused. “What are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>wearing?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“My clothes?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Why do you have all that! It's unnecessary!" They tried to tug at her scarf and she batted him away. "You don't need- a vest </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> a shirt and belts? What is any of that </span>
  <em>
    <span>for?</span>
  </em>
  <span>" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I gotta keep my knives somewhere!" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Why do you need knives?" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"For stabbing!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stabbing </span>
  <em>
    <span>your </span>
  </em>
  <span>finger! And my </span>
  <em>
    <span>neck!” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not gonna keep trying to do that if you don’t want me to, okay? Just leave off!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the middle of this discussion, the door opened. Sasha and David-7 froze, both of them being uncomfortably tuned to the sound of doors sliding open in formerly dark rooms. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A tall man with long brown hair stood in the doorway. His most notable feature was his eyes. They were entirely metal, and bloody metal plates were visible in cuts on his cheeks they must have dug out. He looked incredibly sullen and displeased with whatever turn of events had led him here. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A bit of a flashback might be necessary. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Let’s go to at least a day before these events, but not necessarily something quantifiable on a time stream, because the third group starring in this have a warrant on their arrest for breaking the laws of time and space. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jonny d’Ville counted on his fingers and came out with less than he should. “Well, we don’t have an Elias, and Nastya’s not playing Melanie, and that’s not even accounting for all the characters without big speaking parts. Do we even have a Georgie? I don’t think so. What are we doing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could play them,” Ashes said from across the room. They twisted a tuning peg on their bass and tried the string again; the note was discordant. “Jonny d’Ville as Elias Bouchard. Jonny d’Ville as Melanie King. Jonny d’Ville as Georgie Barker. Jonny d’Ville as Gerard Keay. Jonny d’Ville as Basira Hussain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you implying you’re going to stop playing Basira?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, yeah. I’ll be too busy playing the Archivist.” Ashes adopted a hoarser voice. “Hi, I’m Jonny d’Ville, but I’m creepy now.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Implying Jonny isn’t already creepy,” Ivy said without looking up from her book. Brian did a rimshot on the nearest thing to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, come on! </span>
  <em>
    <span>That </span>
  </em>
  <span>gets a rimshot but that really funny joke I told yesterday doesn’t?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was mean,” Brian said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, so when Ivy’s rude to me you all love her, but when I’m mean to Marius you get on my case?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Ashes said, playing a scale. “I don’t see what’s so hard to understand here.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is homophobia at its finest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Personally, I’m Jonnyphobic.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aha! So you’re afraid of me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jonnyphobia: a unique psychological phenomenon occurring in 21.8% of the planets the Mechanisms [see index] have been to,” Ivy added helpfully from her corner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you even have an index?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>All </span>
  </em>
  <span>good libraries have an index.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tim!” Jonny called. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim snapped out of his focus on the laser pistol he was upgrading. “Yeah?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Find us some voice actors.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why do </span>
  <em>
    <span>I </span>
  </em>
  <span>have to do that?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because I say so.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have no power here! Ashes has the power! You’re lower ranked than </span>
  <em>
    <span>me!” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do it, Tim,” Ashes said, resolving the argument over ship roles before it could kick off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Betrayal. Fine. I’ll find some poor souls floating in space or something.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Against all odds, he’d been successful. He’d gone to Earth and gathered up a few mortals, then by happenstance </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually </span>
  </em>
  <span>found people floating in space nearby and locked them up in a spare room for ‘safekeeping’, hoping that they wouldn’t wake up so he wouldn’t have to deal with them. He’d already had to contend with like three terrified mortals today. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right,” he said, here and now, “can either of you voice act?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, I don’t know nothing about acting! I’ve been to a play </span>
  <em>
    <span>once! </span>
  </em>
  <span>An’ guess how many people died! Three, an’ one of them I actually cared about, or my friend did anyway.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Only three?” Tim counted on his fingers for a second before forgetting what he was counting. “No wonder you’re mad, a good show needs way more death than </span>
  <em>
    <span>that!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>David-7 elbowed Sasha. This, to him, was coming far too close to everything falling apart because she didn’t know when to- shut up, or be tactful, or anything. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“I can handle this, just let me talk to him,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>he hissed at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can handle this? I’m perfectly capable of handling myself, alright! I’m not an idiot!” she whispered back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I never said you were an idiot! I just think, you, er, should be spared the task of talking to him, y’know, it’s awful, and I’m fine doing it. I want to do it </span>
  <em>
    <span>for </span>
  </em>
  <span>you, see, because you’ve been nice to me,” he lied. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really? Er, thanks, mate, I suppose, but honestly, I’m alright.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you? Why are you talking to someone trying to interrogate you?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh,” Sasha realized, and went quiet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why don’t you tell me about those shows?” David-7 suggested diplomatically to Tim, trying to buy some time to think. With luck, he’d go off on a tangent and Sasha could stab him with those knives. How many did she have, anyway? He’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>thought </span>
  </em>
  <span>he’d taken hers, and then she found </span>
  <em>
    <span>more </span>
  </em>
  <span>somehow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m just getting this over with so Jonny can be the one who’s got to deal with you.” He sighed, blowing his hair out of his face, and then brightened. “This is going very well so far, actually! You’re not screaming or anything!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen; why are you even doing this? You could just tell your-- boss--” David-7 guessed- “that you couldn’t find us, and then let us go!” </span>
  <em>
    <span>It’s a win-win? No, I shouldn’t act like this is in my own interests, he’ll listen better if it’s for him. </span>
  </em>
  <span>“It’s a win for you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, first off, Jonny is </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>my boss, no matter what he says. Second, I don’t know where you’re from, originally. I found both of you in space. Third, you’re actually being pretty civil. I can deal with this, I can’t deal with the other mortals we got.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right, I wouldn’t want to have to make you search. Let </span>
  <em>
    <span>them </span>
  </em>
  <span>go, then.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tim looked thoughtful. “That’s not actually a bad idea.” A thought came to him. “Y’know, it’d be more convenient to just kill you and throw your bodies out, though.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You need</span>
  <em>
    <span> me</span>
  </em>
  <span> to ‘voice act’,” David-7 said calmly, trying to hide his fear, “and if you kill anyone else I can stop being so civil.” Threatening him was a gamble; it was likely he’d just be killed for that insubordination. He resisted the urge to apologize and curl up against whatever Tim was going to do to him. There was a chance. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh, fine,” Tim said. “I’ll return the ones from 21C Earth.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s-- a good idea!” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Can </span>
  </em>
  <span>you voice act, though? You never answered.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. We both can.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good. Learn your lines before tomorrow. You’re playing Elias and she’s playing Melanie.” He threw a sheaf of stapled papers at them and left. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>David-7,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Sasha said, sotto voce, “</span>
  <em>
    <span>I can’t voice act. I don’t know what that is.” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Neither do I.” He looked down at the papers, scattered across the floor. “I suppose we’d better learn. And quickly.” </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>leave a comment!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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